Intro to Knots
Summary: Jeff organizes a lovely holiday gathering at his apartment, but Annie secretly invites Professor Cornwallis (recurring guest star Malcolm McDowell), to get in his good graces. When it becomes apparent that Professor Cornwallis intends to give them a bad grade on their joint history paper, the atmosphere quickly deteriorates, and the group takes decisive action. Plot Over at Jeff's apartment, Annie arrives to help decorate the place for the Christmas party he is hosting for the study group. Despite the fact they all agreed not to exchange presents, Annie shows up with a few. Soon the others arrive bearing gifts as well along with "Kevin"/Chang. Jeff explains Pierce is absent because he is taking a sensitivity training course. After the group settles in, Annie breaks the news that Professor Cornwallis gave the history paper they all worked on a failing grade. She tells them she invited the professor to the party in the hopes of convincing him to change the grade. Jeff likes the plan and gets the rest of the group on board. When the professor arrives, everyone gives him a warm welcome, but he coldly states he can't stay long as he is meeting his daughter later. Jeff tries his best charm on him, but it's clear the professor is only interested in the female party goers. Jeff goes to the kitchen with Britta to bring out more refreshments and confides that he tanked his section of the history paper. He estimated that the others sections would cover for his but hadn't anticipated someone else would get a failing grade. Jeff assures ab angry Britta he will make things right and goes to check with Annie if Cornwallis is having a good time. When he learns Chang is with him, he rushes over and quickly sends him away. The professor says he is aware they are all trying to suck up to him so he will change the C minus he gave their paper. Once Jeff learns they already had a passing grade, he pulls Annie aside and asks her to explain. She tells that a C minus isn't good enough if she plans on becoming the valedictorian. Furious she ruined the Christmas party over this, Jeff starts to rant, insulting Cornwallis in the process. The professor overhears Jeff's tirade and informs him that he just changed their grade to an "F". Jeff pleads with him to give them a few moments to sort things out and calls the study group into his bedroom where he explains the situation. After some arguing, Jeff says their only option is for him to talk to the professor again and get their C-minus back. They then hear screaming from the living room and find that Chang has tied Professor Cornwallis to a chair. Annie tries to apologize, but Jeff stops her, sensing an opportunity. He notes they now have leverage over the professor and can use it to their advantage. Cornwallis disagrees, claiming that he will call the police, and everyone involved will be charged with a felony. Jeff replies that only the people at this party know what really happened. Annie backs Jeff up by describing a scenario where the professor attacked her, Britta, or Shirley, alluding to his past history with coeds at Oxford. Cornwallis doesn't believe in the group's solidarity and declares he can get them to turn on each other. He offers a single "A" to any one person in the group to untie him; the rest will all fail. The group starts to argue amongst themselves, but Jeff asserts that they all need to stay united. The professor starts to goad them, wondering who will end up being the betrayer, he points out that cracks appear in all such alliances throughout history. He guesses that in the study group's case, present and past romantic entanglements might be a cause. He also suggests specifically that a competition between two of them vying for valedictorian may cause friction as well. However, despite him baiting Annie with the possibility of undermining her rival Shirley and securing the valedictorian spot for herself, she refuses his offer. Jeff tells Cornwallis to give up, but he states he has one more play left. He is about to reveal the reason they failed, forcing Jeff to admit to how he sabotaged their History paper. The group, particularly Annie and Shirley, are furious at Jeff, but their squabbling is interrupted when the doorbell rings. It turns out to be Jeff's new neighbor, Dean Pelton. He barges in once Jeff opens the door, and the study group is shocked to see that Cornwallis has disappeared while they were distracted. After Pelton leaves upset that he wasn't invited to the Christmas party, the professor emerges from the kitchen, taunting the group that one of them freed him for a passing grade. Jeff says it doesn't matter who did it as he automatically forgives them because they are, like him, a flawed, selfish, and hopeless soul. Disgusted by his sentimentality, Cornwallis suggests it was he who untied him angering Jeff who grabs him and with the help of the others ties him to the chair again. The group decides to open their Christmas gifts with Chang/Kevin handing out his first. It dawns on Annie that from the horrible way Kevin wrapped the gifts he couldn't have tied up Cornwallis the first time. The then professor admits that he staged the entire thing to amuse himself because he was lonely, admitting his daughter wasn't really coming to visit. After some negotiations, Jeff manages to secure the group a C plus for their paper due to the mental anguish Cornwallis put them through and the group goes back to opening their presents. Later, Chang excuses himself from the festivities and goes to the bathroom. He takes out his cellphone and talks to someone, saying his plan to get the group expelled failed, and he has to try something else. End tag While the group plays with the kittens Dean Pelton gave them, Abed wonders what is going on in The Darkest Timeline. Over in that alternate reality, Evil Jeff is in a courtroom pleading for someone's freedom. His client turns out to be Evil Annie, and he manages to convince the judge and jury to drop all charges against her. Once she's freed from her restraints, the two embrace and kiss. He tells her the rest of the study group are preparing to destroy the "Prime timeline". Recurring themes Continuity *'That just happened': Annie mentions she learned the group got a failing grade on their history paper from Quendra who works as an assistant for Professor Cornwallis. Shirley says, "I bet she does", referencing the fact that Cornwallis admitted he had an affair with a coed at Oxford which cost him his tenure. Annie admitted in the previous episode (which was originally meant to air after this one) to letting the professor rub her feet in order to pass a test. *'Doubletake': **Jeff discusses his favorite drink, a McCallen (neat), with Professor Cornwallis. He is first shown ordering the drink in the Season Two episode "Critical Film Studies". **When Annie suggests Cornwallis sexually harassed her and Britta, she adds Shirley as well saying, "He was intimidated by her sexually". This is a callback to when Shirley said the exact same thing about Jeff in the Season Two episode "Paradigms of Human Memory". **Britta says "None taken" when Annie incredulously believes she might be up for valedictorian, mimicking Todd's response to the study group whenever they insulted him in the Season Three episode "Competitive Ecology". **When Cornwallis is freed and everyone wonders who did it, Troy asks if they can say it was a ghost again, referring to the Season Two episode "Cooperative Calligraphy" when he came up with a similar excuse for the disappearance of Annie's pens. *'Returning faculty': Professor Cornwallis returns in this episode. *'This must be the place': Jeff's apartment is the setting for the entire episode. Running gags Pop culture references *'IMDb': Abed makes several references to the 1988 movie "Die Hard" as he hoped to make the holidays more like the film. Meta references *'Homage': This episode was intended to be an homage to the 1948 Alfred Hitchcock film "Rope". Writer Andy Bobrow revealed on his Twitter account that he had intended the episode to be shot in long tracking sequences just like the movie, but production argued it wouldn't be feasible in the time frame they were given to shoot it *'Use your allusion': Annie says "Sha-na-not", a reference to the 1970's band Sha na na. *'Up against the wall': **Jeff says about the curtains "Actually, these will also work for Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day, or whenever people get to see it.". This references the fact that this episode was shot when NBC had moved the premiere date for Season Four of Community to an undisclosed time. **When the group argues amongst themselves after Cornwallis is tied up by Chang, Abed proclaims, "This is amazing and possibly happening in real time!". This is a reference to the fact that the episode was to be shot in real time (see Homage) *'Résumé': Professor Cornwallis calls Troy "childish", referencing Donald Glover's stage name Childish Gambino. Trivia Writer Andy Bobrow posted on his twitter account a few pages from an earlier draft of the script for this episode. These had scenes or extended sequences which included lines originally written for Pierce before Chevy Chase left the show, a sub-plot involving Troy's gift to Britta, and the entire speech made by Evil Jeff in the episode end tag. Pierce dialogue: Troy and Abed sub-plot: Evil Jeff's speech: Reception Promotional video Back on December 2012, NBC released a sneak peek at the then unnamed Christmas episode as a teaser for the upcoming Season Four premiere in February 2013. Promotional photos Community-season-4-episode-10-intro-to-knots-1.jpg Community-season-4-episode-10-intro-to-knots-2.jpg Community-season-4-episode-10-intro-to-knots-3.jpg 4X11 Promopic.jpg 4X11 Promopic5.jpg 4X11 Promopic6.jpg 4x11 Promopic7.jpg Category:Community Episodes Category:Season 4 Episodes Category:Darkest Timeline